The OtherInbox Wants to be Your Mailman (Exclusive Invites!)

OtherInbox is a unique new email service that just launched today. It wants to provide a way to manage all of the emails that you don’t really want going to your personal or business email accounts. For example, emails from online shopping vendors, newsletters, news updates, social networking messages and more.

Howdoes it work?
Instead of having all of these emails flooding your inbox, OtherInbox allows you to maintain unlimited email addresses at your own domain name, such as JohnDoe.otherinbox.com.

Thegood news is that you don’t have to create these email addresses ahead of time before you can use them. You can create them on the fly as needed. For example, you can create a new email address amazon@JohnDoe.otherinbox.com for Amazong emails and Facebook@JohnDoe.otherinbox.com for Facebook and so on for all other sites. OtherInbox then sorts everything coming back into the appropriate folders.

Ifanyone sells your email address then you will know exactly who was responsible and you can then Block that one email address so that you’ll never see their emails again. It’s quite handy.

WhatElse can You Do with It?
Besides creating an email address for all websites you shop at, you can also create addresses for events and functions that you attend such as the TechCrunch50@JohnDoe.Otherinbox.com or DemoFall2008@JohnDoe.Otherinbox.com. It’s also handy when it comes to tracking rebates, coupons and shipment tracking information. It’s a powerful new weapon against spammers as well.

Conclusion
Mostof us already own many “other” inboxes on services like Yahoo, Hotmail or Gmail to handle these types of emails but OtherInbox can replace them all. It could become SpamCentral Station, if you will. The interface is intuitive and it does make managing your emails much easier.

Youcan find emails a lot quicker as well thanks to the folder system it uses. Yes, some of you are saying “why not just use bloody rules and filters to automatically archives emails according to the sender!” Well, true, rules and filters can do something like that but it still requires a great deal of work on your part that would never end.

Everytime you joined a new site or service you would have to create a new rule or filter to handle it. With the Otherinbox all you have to do is create a new email address on the fly and you’re done.

***INVITES***
Special invites only for Mashable Readers! The first 25 readers can claim their own OtherInbox right now!

Courtesy: Mashable

Need Google Apps on Your Desktop? Try GMDesk.

A new service called GMDesk, according to a report from Cybernet, leverages Adobe AIR to provide Google Apps as desktop versions, with easy shortcut keys for toggling between the desktop and browser-based versions. In all, GMDesk supports Gmail, Google Calendar, Reader, Documents, Maps and Picasa through its service. Helpful for those that want immediate desktop access to their Google apps without having to open up a browser window.

Meanwhile, Google itself seems to be more focused on its Web-based and mobile efforts than rolling out desktop version for those apps that it hasn’t already created a desktop version. With more growth potential on a global scale available with an increased mobile presence, especially with Google Android and a majority of wireless providers on board for partnership deals, it looks like the mobile front is an ongoing point of effort for new offerings to consumers.

Google Launches Mapping Satellite

GeoEye-1 will capture high-resolution earth images for exclusive use on Google Maps.

Google has expanded its reach into space with the successful launch Saturday of a new satellite that will provide the company with exclusive images for its maps.

After an 11:50 a.m. takeoff from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, the GeoEye-1 satellite relayed a downlink signal to a ground station in Norway, confirming that it had separated from its United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket and had begun to initialize its onboard systems.

The satellite launch was coordinated by terrain mapping company GeoEye. "Based upon the data we saw, the satellite is performing properly and ready to begin the next phase towards meeting its mission requirements," said Bill Schuster, GeoEye chief operating officer, in a statement.

GeoEye said the 4,310-pound satellite required calibration and check-out period before the company would sell its images.

Although GeoEye did not mention Google in any of its announcements regarding the satellite, the search engine giant's name appeared on the satellite and company founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page attended the launch, according to reports.

GeoEye said it plans to sell the images to customers around the world, but a Google spokesperson said that Google has exclusive rights to the images for commercial maps.

"The imagery from GeoEye-1 adds to the quantity and quality of that currently provided by our IKONOS satellite, and together this magnificent constellation will enable us to meet world-wide customer demand," Matthew O'Connell, GeoEye CEO, said.

GeoEye-1 is part of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), NextView program, which aims to obtain timely and accurate commercial satellite imagery.

It will collect 0.41-meter ground resolution black and white images and 1.65-meter color images simultaneously. It can show objects as small as 16 inches. U.S. licensing restrictions limit commercial images to a half-meter ground resolution.

The satellite can capture the images from 423 miles above the Earth and travel about 4.5 miles per second.

General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems in Gilbert, Ariz., built the satellite, while ITT in Rochester, N.Y., developed the imaging system. ITT is building another imaging system for GeoEye-2, which is scheduled to launch in 2011.

GeoEye said it won a $500 million NextView contract four years ago, and it built and launched the satellite with no cost overruns.

Source: Information Week

KoffeePhoto Hits the Heights in Photo Storing Capabilities

A free KoffeePhoto account puts your photo sharing concerns to rest

Looking for a safe place to store your photo haring images? KoffeePhoto has the security you seek. Want a handy desktop utility for organizing and sharing your photos? Or an easy method for ordering prints? You can get it all -- and more -- at KoffeePhoto.

Coffee, tea -- or KoffeePhoto?

KoffeePhoto is a photo-sharing site that was launched in late 2006 by KoffeeWare, a company that has provided online photo services for businesses since 2005. Unlike many other photo sharing sites, KoffeePhoto is software that you download to your desktop to organize your photo sharing images for storing.

At your leisure, you can organize your prized photos into albums using the software. When you're done, your albums are stored online on the KoffeePhoto network. Every album in your photo sharing collection gets its own web page for your visitors to view.

When you send an email notification to your contacts, the software automatically inserts the correct link to the album of your choice.

When the recipient opens the email, a full-screen slide show begins, complete with music. When the show is over, he or she can download and install the free KoffeePhoto software for easy access to your photos.

Your photos are safe on the KoffeePhoto network

If you're looking for a secure place to back up your photos, KoffeePhoto provides terrific security. What's more, you can easily access your secured collection whenever you wish. If your computer crashes, KoffeePhoto can retrieve your entire photo gallery quickly and easily.

While a free photo sharing account comes with plenty of features to suit your needs, a paid account gives you unlimited server storage space.

Microblogging made easy

Every photo you store on KoffeePhoto gets its own microblog. If you don't know what a microblog is, you're not alone. Basically, microblogging allows you and your viewers to comment and chat about photos. This feature makes photo sharing truly interactive and certainly much more fun.

User-friendly

KoffeePhoto is the ideal solution for easily organizing, backing up and sharing photos, both on your computer and on the Internet. The software is highly user-friendly.

You simply let it search your computer and create a list of your photos. Once the search is complete, go through your collection and delete, sort and organize your favorite photos as you wish to store them on the KoffeePhoto network. You can be certain your photos are protected from the elements as well as the ravages of time.

This system is at the apex of the popular photo storing and photo sharing frenzy. It's easy, convenient, user friendly, and safe. In your search for the right photo sharing option, be sure to check out KoffeePhoto.

Yahoo Shuts Down Mash, 0-4 On Social Networking

First came 360, launched in 2005 as an early attempt to get Yahoo into social networking, was unceremoniously shut down earlier this year. In 2006 Yahoo was unable to close a transaction with Facebook, despite being willing to pay up to $1.62 billion. Nor could they pull the trigger on a $1 billion Bebo deal (Bebo went to AOL for $850 million). Now Yahoo has shut down Mash, which launched less than a year ago and is best known for sporting a Darth Vader playing guitar and eating a banana image when it was in private beta.

Today,Yahoo emailed users notice that Mash will be shutting down on September 29, 2008.

Fifthtime’s a charm they say (right?). Let’s hope the next grand strategy works out better than the first four.

Meanwhile,Yahoo Mash joins the deadpool.

Courtesy: TechCrunch

Zeep Mobile API Gives Site Owners Free SMS… With a Hitch

So you run a website and really like the social software that enables your visitors to interact with things you produce. But you want to take that connection with the crowd to a more mobile position. Perhaps you’d like some sort of arrangement which allows interested parties to send and receive messages to and from your domain, and preferably something that costs you no financial investment to establish. Enter, Zeep Mobile.

What Zeep provides, in short, is an API. Pretty much any developer can implement the API, and do so freely and easily. With “no volume restrictions,” either. How it works is fairly simple.

Everything operates via a five-digit SMS code: 88147. This is used for messages sent out to users of websites and vice versa. The entry of a “website prefix” helps direct inbound communications. And Zeep is said to be able to connect with “all major carriers in the US,” so it’s bound to work for most who fancy the bridge it provides. The only outstanding concern is the cost to receive SMS messages. In the case of site owners, that’s mostly a non-issue. For site users, however, that’s a hurdle that some just won’t jump. Mobile phone users in international reaches may be the beneficiaries of a free-receive promise from their respective carriers, but here in the US, carriers tend to refuse any differentiation between the ins and the outs.

Zeep’sinfluence obviously can only stretch so far, so one will have to take a glass-half-full approach to this. Inasmuch as Zeep serves its first list of clients - website owners - there will be ample cheers for no-pay.

That “free” designation, mind you, has a bit of a condition attached to it. Yes, Zeep’s API is free to use, technically speaking. But that real-world use of the service will work hand-in-hand with something the company calls Zeep Media. That’s where advertisers enter the fold. Zeep states that developers utilizing the API will glean metadata pertaining to SMS-based interaction for the purpose of establishing “an accurate profile of each subscriber’s interests.” It explains to prospective advertisers that this ensures that spots are “always displayed to the right customers.” In other words, “highly targetable campaigns.”

Now,there’s nothing quite so conniving or deceptive about that. Targeting of that sort occurs in many scenarios today. But it is nonetheless good for websites and their creators or managers to keep this in mind when considering an SMS platform to infuse into their operations. I suspect a good portion of Zeep users won’t mind the ads much. Their presence, after all, is only going to increase with time. Still, it won’t taste good to everyone, so it is only appropriate to note.

Courtesy: Mashable

IE 8 Beta 2 ready for download

By: Mary Jo Foley

Mozilla did its best to throw a spoiler into Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE) 8 Beta 2 launch on Wednesday. But the new Ubiquity add-in for Firefox doesn’t sound all that different from what Microsoft is doing with the version of its browser due to ship in November.

Starting today, August 27, at 3 p.m. EST, Internet Explorer (IE) 8 Beta 2 became available for download by anyone who wants to give it a whirl.

As expected, there are a lot of new features that were not part of IE Beta 1 which are now available in IE 8 Beta 2. In Private browsing (”porn mode”) and In Private blocking are just two of the many new items that got added to the latest IE beta. Others include crash recovery (I’m installing just for that alone!), a “Diagnose Connection Problem” button, and Compatibility View (for sites that break when viewed in IE 8 — some examples of which are on the Redmond Pie enthusiast site).

(For a list of more of what’s new in Beta 2, check out this report.)

The most interesting — and potentially controversial — new features are those that fall into the Microsoft-designated category of “Reach Beyond the Page.” (That’s the terminology Microsoft is using in its IE 8 Beta 2 Reviewers’ Guide, a copy of which I had a chance to see this week.)

Here’swhat’s on the Reach list:

*Accelerators (the feature formerly known as “Activities” in Beta 1): Technology allowing users to perform tasks like finding a definition of a word, posting a blog entry, mapping an address or posting a blog entry) available on the page they are viewing, instead of on a new page

*Web slices: Brings the user’s favorite data (sports scores, weather reports, stock quotes, etc.) directly into the Favorites Bar. Changes and updates are retrieved and users are visually notified of the updated information status

*Visual search suggestions: In the Instant Search box, as users type a search term, they will receive real-time search suggestions from their chosen search provider, as well as results from the users’s own Favorites and browsing history.

* Suggested sites: These are recommendations about other, related sites that might be of interest. This feature must be enabled by the user; it’s not on by default.

The only one of these four categories that got an update between Betas 1 an 2 were Web slices. But it sounded from my conversation with the Softies that they were expecting a number of testers to look deeply and critically into the Visual search suggestions and suggested sites areas, as well, when putting IE 8 Beta 2 through its paces.

As Mozilla’s Ubiquity announcement demonstrates, Mozilla seems to be thinking the same way as Microsoft’s browser team. As another of my ZDNet colleagues, Ryan Stewart, put it: The Web’s page-based model has been slowly dying. When browsing, users increasingly want to perform specific tasks that often involve mashing up Web sites/destinations/content.

I’mcurious whether these new ways of discovering/promoting content will have any impact on how users search the Web. Will suggested sites or search terms make users any less likely to Google something?

And how will this new functionality impact online advertising? As Microsoft on Directions analyst Matt Rosoff noted, IE 8’s InPrivate blocking feature

“An InPrivate Session will, by default, also block all third-party content from domains that have appeared more than 10 times in your history. In practice, that means a lot of ads served by ad networks could be blocked. I think that’s a great step for privacy, but seems to contradict Microsoft’s own promises in the advertising realm–in particular, Microsoft Advertising has pushed this idea called engagement mapping, which relies on tracking users’ interaction with an advertising campaign over a few days or weeks. I’m not sure how Microsoft can square that circle.”

Do you like the concepts behind Accelerators, slices, visual search suggestions and suggested sites? What about Firefox’s Ubiquity? Do you see any advantages of Microsoft’s approach over Mozilla’s, or vice versa?

Firefox Mobile (Concept Video)

Firefox is coming to mobile. The innovation, usability, and extensibility that has propelled Firefox to 200 million users is set to do the same for Firefox in a mobile setting.

User experience is the most important aspect of having a compelling mobile product. Every bit of interaction and pixel of presentation counts when typing is laborious and screen sizes are minuscule. Many of the standard interaction models, like menus, always-present chrome, and having a cursor, don’t necessarily make sense on mobile. It’s a wickedly exciting opportunity but there are myriad challenges to getting it right.

Firefox Mobile Concept Video from Aza Raskin on Vimeo.

Source: MozillaLabs

Mozilla Labs: Introducing Snowl

 An Experiment with Messaging in the Browser Conversing (a.k.a. messaging) is a common online activity, and a number of desktop and web applications enable it. But with an increasing variety of protocols and providers, it’s getting harder and harder to keep track of all your conversations.
Could the web browser help you follow and participate in online discussions? Snowl is an experiment to answer that question. It’s a prototype Firefox extension that integrates messaging into the browser based on a few key ideas:

It doesn’t matter where messages originate. They’re alike, whether they come from traditional email servers, RSS/Atom feeds, web discussion forums, social networks, or other sources. Some messages are more important than others, and the best interface for actively reading important messages is different from the best one for casually browsing unimportant ones. A search-based interface for message retrieval is more powerful and easier to use than one that makes you organize your messages first to find them later. Browser functionality for navigating web content, like tabs, bookmarks, and history, also works well for navigating messages.

The Initial Prototype

The initial prototype supports two sources of messages: RSS/Atom feeds and Twitter. And it exposes two interfaces for reading them. First, a traditional three-pane “list” view, targeted to active reading of important messages:

Second, a “river of news” view, based on the concept popularized by Dave Winer, designed for casual browsing:

Roadmap

Our next step is to gather feedback on the prototype and the ideas behind it. We want to know if the concept has promise and is worth pursuing further. We’re particularly interested in feedback on how messaging might fit into the browsing experience and if there are other interfaces (or refinements to the two interfaces built into the prototype) that would make it easier for users to have online conversations.

We’re still considering what may come after that, but possible extensions to the Snowl prototype include:

support for additional message sources, e.g. Facebook, AIM, Google Talk, etc.;
an interface for writing and sending messages to enable true two-way conversations;an API to make it easier for developers to build new experimental interfaces, e.g. an instant message view.

Also, last week at the Firefox+ summit there were related discussions about the future of Thunderbird’s user experience, with many ideas that overlap the ideas embedded in Snowl. We expect that some of the Thunderbird ideas will influence Snowl’s future, and that lessons (and possibly code) from Snowl will influence Thunderbird’s future.

Get Snowl for Firefox

Getthe initial prototype: Snowl for Firefox.

Warning: the initial prototype is a primitive implementation with many bugs, and subsequent versions will include changes that break functionality and delete all your messages, making you start over from scratch.

Theprototype code is released under an MPL/GPL/LGPL tri-license. Most icons are from the Silk icon set by famfamfam, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 license. The OPML icon is from the OPML Icon Project, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 license.

GetInvolved

Let us know what you think by posting in the forum, reporting bugs, or conversing with us in the #labs channel on irc.mozilla.org. Or check out the source and submit your bug fixes and enhancements.

Source: MozillLab

Mozilla Announces Ubiquity for Universal Access

Mozilla Labs announced today that it has released a new solution called Ubiquity, which will try to bring a disjointed Web together under the auspices of that one solution.

Ubiquity will try to “connect the Web with language to find new user interfaces that could make it possible for everyone to do common Web tasks more quickly and easily.” More specifically, Ubiquity will try to get users to type what they want to do instead of what they’re trying to find in a search box, enable more mashups to increase the usability of different Web services, and extend browser functionality to make it a hub for online solutions.

Ubiquity for Firefox from Aza Raskin on Vimeo.

As part of its announcement, Mozilla Labs announced Ubiquity 0.1, which will demonstrate some of Ubiquity’s concepts and its potential. This first release focuses more on the platform itself, which the subsequent release will “explore interfaces that are closer to features that might make it into Firefox.”

Mozilla also said that Ubiquity 0.1 will allow “users to map and insert maps anywhere; translate on-page; search amazon, google, wikipedia, yahoo, youtube, etc.; digg and twitter; look up and insert yelp review; get the weather; syntax highlight any code you find; and a lot more.”

At this point, Ubiquity is obviously a crude version of what could possibly be, but it promises more than it currently offers. And by performing the kind of functions that are simply impossible today (Mozilla mentions the difficulty with which people can work together on mapping), Ubiquity could be the centerpiece of the Web’s evolution. At the very least, Mozilla hopes so.

Source: Mashable